I was immensely proud to stand on stage in Boston at #ACTFL17 with four other outstanding language educators. Darcy Pippins was one of them. One reason Darcy was representing the Southwest COLT is because she has lead an incredible transformation
Raise Enrollment. It’s in YOUR Hands
Allysen Clancy shares on the iFLT/NTPRS/CI Teaching Facebook PLN how CI-based instruction has raised enrollment: I have been what you would consider a traditional (legacy) Spanish teacher slowly becoming interested in CI techniques. I went to iflt last year and
Guest Post: Tracking Novels Reading During FVR
My colleague, Mónica Romero (follow her at @elespanolmola) posted on Twitter an image of the total number of Spanish novels her level 1 students had read. I was intrigued. That’s not something I have done. So I asked her to
Start Close In: A Poem (and Call to Action) by David Whyte
David Whyte ( @poetdavidwhyte ) defines poetry as “Language against which we have no defenses.” His post from today, January 5, 2017, is a beautiful example. This poem, Start Close In, crushes me and inspires me. Reading it aloud I recall
It Happens Without Warning
“It happens without warning, catching me by surprise. We might be watching a video in which a Bolivian chola comes on screen, or perhaps a very dark-skinned person, an overweight woman wearing a hijab or a homosexual couple dancing in
Great Societies Tell Stories
The world is full of ambiguities. Often those issues perceived as black and white turn out to be grey. And yet, there are some constants: There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no
It’s Getting Dark – a spooky rhyme for this here time
Here’s a little gem written up by Jody Noble, an excellent TCI teacher now living in MX. It’s great timing for this rhyme. Spanish teachers unfamiliar with Luis Pescetti, you might like more of his work. Jody’s description of how she
Inaugural Comprehensible Midwest Conference TOMORROW!!
In Milwaukee, WI at the University School of Milwaukee tomorrow over 180 language acquisition facilitators have gathered at the inaugural Comprehensible Midwest Conference to get better at the art and science of delivering compelling, comprehensible input to their student learners! In
Get Your Admins to Help With #TL90%+
If you teach in a typical US public school like I do, you’re likely to have administrators popping into your classes at different times of the day. In my case, it seems like a revolving door. You’re also likely to
I Gotta Have More Psycho-Social, Baby
Guess what! I’ve got a fever and the only prescription is more Psycho-Social. “In the everyday world, the psycho-social use of language abounds. It is so woven into how we interact, we don’t even think about it.” -Bill VanPatten, Communication